Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-11-09
IN a HOTEL PARLO Oh.

IN a HOTEL PARLOR.
Social Studies Made by a Cynical
Correspondent.
The Young Woman Who Personifles the
Spirit OF Cosmetic Touth-Thc Little
Widow, the Engaged Couple and
the Happy Bride and Groom. 49,
An observing and crusty letter-writer
sends the following sarcastic epistle from
White Sulphur Springs to the Chicago
Tribune: Yonder in the magnifcence of
precious stones and precious stutfS is the
Spirit of Cosmetic Youth. She is here as
she is everywhere, one of her kind, like q
tuft Of painted thistledown being blown by
the winds of circumstance into every hotel
parlor: She would bel handsome woman
if she did not insist on being q portrait Of
herself. The white Wilderness and ruddy
redness OF her face would not deceive
blind man. The arch of the eyebrows is too
perfect, if its forgery were not too appar-
ent. The brown ringlets may be real, but
they are judged by the company they keep.
pharasaical cry is their privilege every hour
of the day, and the hemehest of them, in her
candor, feels senseof superiority. She is
an interesting problem. What her theory
Of beauty is, what her conceptions of the
human vision is, what she imagines her eff
feet to be. how she can fail to see that she
is the painted lackdaw in the dovecOte, and
that even the most Innocent of the little
squads know it, are questions which she
herself could not answer. She does not
look altogether happy. Nobody ever is who
wears mask. ~~.-.,
The Little Widow is in her glory tonight.
She is not very old in widowhood, for the
moisture of the tears that have not quite
ceased falling makes her eye humid and
brilliant She has an adorer to her taste,
and the suhdued coquetry of grief that she
displays in a delicate study. The suggest
Iveness OF her black gauze dress brings
family into view white marble tomb in the
distance behind her, vague and growing
wagner like the background of a fading pho
tograph. She has a lady friend beside her
to help the conversation, partly for appear
ances, partly because she knows that three
people can talk much better than two during
the early stages of her acquaintance with
Him. Her signs are tenderly managed. Her
PARKWAY hook at times wouldindicate that she
is gazing across the swift and silent tide
that flows ceasefessly along the dark, dim
walls of the world to q gentleman whom she
knew quite well, who is sitting lonesomely
among the asphodels on the other bank,
holding abouquet OF scentless immortelles to
q nose that does not smell She is not gaz-
ing there, however. She has grown little
nearsighsed OF his account, Or she would
not tonight be smiling at the gentleman
whom, II the sowing seed bears fruit, she
will one day be reminding Of those many
virtues in his predecessor which she never
discovered till she found them in the cpl
taph. She should cherish the memory and
conserve the grief as long. as possible, how
ever, for grief is wonderful by=path to
manly sympathy, and there is no female
jewel in all the catalogue at Tiffany's one
half as effective as the eyes trembling tear.
The Engaged Couple are sweetly con-
tented They are sitting together, on tete-
artete and are talking IN that low, conf
dental way which has characterized them
all the day. The average young lady in the
South takes an engagement quite as mat
ter Of course and Encouragement with
equal calmness. Some of them here would
have difficulty in telling Just whom they are
engaged to at present, and are in imminent
need of set of double entry books for their
love affairs. This is real engagement,
however, for ever since they breakasted
side by side and absorbed wheat cakes in
sweet sympathy, they have been together.
He ought to know her face by heart by this
time and she his, but they keep on gazing
with an unsatisfed curiosity. when we
are married, The says now and then, and
halts a little, while she reddens slightly but
looks much more unconcerned than an I'M
concerned person ever could They have not
gotten quite used to it yet, but he likes to
say it and they are making all sorts of plans
which wiz give place to anent1rely different
set of plans when they get located in the
new state to which they are immigrating
Andrew Carnegie wrote that the reason
our air castles are never realized is that be-
fore we reach them we have builded other
and higher ones beyond and forget the old
ones attained In gazing at the new ones
atar. He ought to mark copy and send it
to the engaged couple. The country needs
a sentimental geography and set OF matri-
monial charts just now, and all contribu-
tons to the work would be of practical
value.
They are much more at ease than the
bride and groom, however. He is a blush
ing boy of forty-fve, and beams ruddily in
his happiness with the open frankness of a
sentimental jack-o'-iantern- She is some
what III at ease, however, and her mouth
curves downward at the coruers. Her
frontlet curis a little spitefully and she has
the air Of one to whom the Lazy 1anguors of
matrimony were an unexpected, Heaven
sent relief from the daily duty of compos-
ing mutton hash and repelling the en-
eroacments Of a housefui Of boarders.% Her
fine clothes do not hang very well and GER
tain portions Of her figure have apparently
not all the roundness that nature designed
and the modiste supposed. SO she conse-
quently has a sort Of r1isft air that troubles
her and makes her suspicious of hidden
ridicule. At the table she pecks her food
at thoughtful intervals and looks cautiously
about her between each pair Of pecl1s, like
ahen that is i'll at ease. She sees every
thing that is going On, which is fortunate,
for he sees nothing but her. How he hap
pened to find her in the social grab-bag is
one Of the many mysteries, for not one
man in million would have kept the prize
after unWrapping it. Perhaps the Hand that
wrought Eve for Adam guided the blush
ing bridegroom to his seven-d liar week
3 Eden, for Adam was certainly not happier
nor Eve more surprised at the Development